The author is a Forbes contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer.

Loading ...

Loading ...

This story appears in the {{article.article.magazine.pretty_date}} issue of {{article.article.magazine.pubName}}. Subscribe

Image via CrunchBase

I often still hear: “Yes, Twitter, wonderful, but no business model.” Well, that’s not completely true today, as Twitter might double its revenues in 2012, from $139.5M to $259M. Not bad. Also, not enough, as losses for First Quarter 2011 might still be huge, around $25.8M, according to a Twitter leak. In 1Q 2011, Twitter brought in $23.8 million in revenue and lost $49.2 million. The net loss was $67.8M in 2010.

In 2014, Twitter might make $540M, according to e-Marketer. Maybe Twitter will find a sustainable business model one day. Maybe it will make more money than the billions of dollars that have been lost since its launch in 2006. But at what cost? How much will Twitter have to twist its model to become profitable?

Because if you look at other facts and figures, you realize that despite the losses Twitter has been a huge success...in history. In changing the way people are communicating with each other. In changing the way media finds and delivers their stories. Twitter created a whole new world of communication. It has been a key tool for communication in the “green revolutions” in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya. Even in Iran, one year before. It was on Twitter that we first had information/noises concerning Bin Laden’s death, or about the arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, and even about the death of Whitney Houston.

In less than 10 years, more than Facebook and its 800 million users, Twitter has been the “photo impression” of history. A 140-character print. But when historians of the future try to have an idea of the emotional print or the pulse of historic events, they will need to have a look at Twitter’s geo-localized data. We used to know official or media reports in history; we now can have the live feed of what people are thinking, seeing or feeling within a key moment in history. Reuters has worked on a prototype that could analyze Twitter’s flow with specific keywords that could one day help journalists track testimonies, and undiscovered sources in real time.

People have started to think and write in 140 characters, and we begin to see great and exclusive sentences, good words and thoughts spread by writers, politicians and personalities on Twitter. It’s a new way (not the only one, but a viral one) to pace and shape the world’s consciousness. So, that’s one small step for a business success story, but one giant leap for mankind’s tools for expression.

Twitter has become as important as Wikipedia in the evolution of the information of mankind. It has become a more public space, or a new media grammar, than a “need-to-be-profitable” start-up. It belongs to people, all around the world. It can’t be only the property of a company that needs to make a profit. It’s not shameful to make a profit, but when you own a public space that keeps the footprints of mankind’s conversations, it can’t be considered a private company anymore.

That’s why Twitter’s model should be a Wikipedia model. It should be funded by people, and by fund-raising. It needs between $100M and $200M a year to work safely. It’s a huge amount of money (considering the $30M raised by the Wikimedia foundation). But that’s maybe the only model to keep Twitter safe and free for the people. What do you think?